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Saturday, January 10, 2009

A Little This and That for Saturday

Kelley Armstrong InterviewA new Kelley Armstrong interview has been posted over at Love Romances & More Reviews with a wide-ranging discussion of her books. Check it out.

Cover Art for “Hunting Ground” by Patricia BriggsJackie at Literary Escapism found the new US cover art for Patricia Briggs’ Hunting Ground, the next Alpha and Omega novel posted over at Tez Says who in turn found it on Facebook. To be released July 28, 2009.

Nebula Awards Preliminary Ballot AnnouncedThe Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) announced the draft Preliminary Ballot for the Nebula Awards for 2008. The final ballot will be mailed in early March and the Nebula Awards Weekend will be held April 24-26 at the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard, with the awards presentation banquet to be held on the UCLA campus to tie in with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Here are the novels that have been nominated and there are quite a few fantasy titles in the list -

I finished reading Unclean Spirits! The book itself was a quick read, there were moments that I struggled with Jayne's constant complaining woe is me attitude. However, she comes from a somewhat sheltered environment and is still coming onto her own. Which explains the constant doubt & insecurity. Reality stands she is thrust into a very unreal setting and trying to cope. So even though it grated with the constant complaining, the author depicted it in a real way. The book left me with many questions, which I'm assuming the following books will answer.

How did she get the tattoos and what is the significance? Did Eric leave something written explaining why he chose her? To me even though the book explains that Eric would not really explain things etc. It also describes Eric's character as having foresight to plan ahead, so if this is the case why wouldn't he leave Jayne a note, a video, something this bothers me..

I also feel the ending of the last chapter was rushed through. Would I pick up the next book absolutely...The subject the author chose is different and when you google "Unclean Spirits" there are plenty of articles on the subject. Which I found to be very fascinating and leaves room for a lot of possibilities for the series.

I have @ least 19 books on my TBR pile and I'm forcing myself to read the older ones. I'm currently reading Heart Of Stone by C.E. Murphy..

Tanya that's a great mini-review and I share many of the same questions. I did find the story engaging enough to definitely want to read the next book. First books have so many challenges in establishing characters and worlds it is surprising that they do as well as they do. Never thought to research the term 'unclean spirits'. I imagine Abraham did his research. As for Heart of Stone, that is a great choice. I am a big fan of Murphy's.